.......1993.......MOM AND MO ON THE ROAD.......

Wow, this is a very busy year.After some stutter starts I was a full time Field Operation Manager.Which means that I was moving to the West Coast to open and shut down temporary book stores...Since I would be working out of the coast I put all our stuff into storage, and left Bill and Honey will my son D.thinking once I got settled in one place..I would send for them or come and get them..cause I loved that dog and was not going to leave him forever...He was my best friend...MJ and I packed our suitcases, pillows and 'stuff' and off we went..First stop Long Beach to close down a store.Don't remember how long we were there, but was a 10am to when ever day every day..then we shipped those books off and went off to Reseda...the entire time we were there Laguana was burning and the fire was closing in on us...we arrived at Reseda and closed down the store and those books were going to our Burbank store where I would open it...this is back to back..no stops..just one job to the next...so far..no days off...MJ and I did have a 1/2 a day and I bought her a new bathing suit and we waved at the ocean...We closed the Reseda store and were off to Burbank..where the store is on a corner and the doors open weird...the jacks couldnt bring the 4x4's of books in..we had to park the truck in the middle of the road as there was no place to unload them..so we unload them in middle of the street, run the jacks with stacks of books up hill to the store where we had to unload them from flats and carry into store box by fucking box.(3 entire semi's full of books and office equipment)..I felt weird about the new store manager...he was...undependable and flaky, but the other field manager liked him (he had worked at another store) and blew off my concerns...(he ended up stealing all the money and leaving the store to the employees who stole what money was left...he had a large cocaine habit)This is about 6 weeks of straight work...hard work...heavy lifting..taking tables down..breaking down office, getting utilities turned on off what ever was needed...So finally they call and say they need us in San Francisco where Dan and Pat are..I'm sorta excited but MJ is having fits...her favorite city in the entire world...where she has wanted to live as far back as we could remember...we leave Burbank and I spend my 50th birthday cleaning the filitiest toilets I have ever seen in my entire life...The store used to be a post office sorting (?) place...was the spookiest place ever..right on 1 in the middle of San Francisco.They had to run off squatters before we could open up and I was pretty convinced they still knew how to get in and were upstairs in the peeking room...walk way all around the place with 2 way glass so people could spy on the employees and make sure they weren't stealing mail..or what ever they thought they were doing..there were empty bottles, syringes, discarded rubbers..pretty fucking gross..and we had an old dumb waiter elevator that went to the bottom where the mail trucks would come and go, which was dark dank and spooky and smelled of urine. The top floor only was the same only brighter..it was not fun...so naturally I got the S.F. store..Dan went to some other small town near by..MJ went with Pat to San Jose and worked with him as she couldn't work with me...Pat was supposed to have the S.F. store but he hated it there...Oh and before I started out on the coast trip with MJ I had to help with a store in Phoenix and while there my son calls and tells me about the Dividian fire...good ole F.B.I.(fart burp and itch)so every time I stopped at a motel..and put down Waco as my home town I got some weird ass looks...ok back to S.F.Dan calls me at 3am in the morning and says Los Angles had an earthquake..about 3 days after we left..broke the windows out of Burbank store and rattled it pretty good.plus it almost leved the Reseda store..So..so far we have been in front of a fire and now an earthquake.
.I'm beginning to think I either have great luck or I bring bad luck...pretty scary.
Now every body knows I am a cowboy fan and I was there when the cowboys were playing the niner's for the playoff and Jimmy Johnson is in the S.F. papers saying 'We Will Kick Their Ass'....so me running around in store and on street with my Dallas Cowboy T-shirts didn't make me very popular,but I gave as good as I got..when they would scream out "fuck you, you Cowboy Bitch", I would scream back "Same to you, you fucking 'losers'."...The only time I ever covered my t-shirt was when MJ and I were waiting at our bus stop and a bus load of niner fans got off and they were pissed..I think the eagles had beat them..I thought it best not to stir the pot any...MJ the instigator is going'show em your t-shirt Mom, show 'em your t-shirt.'little wench..
At the S.F. store the employees were, well, how do I put this..?The biggest bunch of lazy, no working, late for work, early to leave,gotta have my cigarette break every 2 fucking hours, thievingest bunch of low lifes I have ever seen in my life...The were actually backing up their cars and trucks to the back door(which was always supposed to be locked, but they made a key for it) and loading up books and taking them out of there faster than I could unload them out of our trucks...I would leave to take money to the bank,two blocks away and by the time I got back they had stole everything that wasn't nailed down...registers were always off $20 to $100 off...just horrible working conditions...the store hours were longer than any store we had open..opened at 8am and closed at 10pm then it was 11pm..then it was midnight..we had the business..but since I couln't leave anyone in charge I was there from 7am to 1am...every single fucking day...by the time I took the bus to the little resturant where I would grab a late dinner and get to motel and shower etc..it was 3am...I was running on empty...from the first store to Thanksgiving (we were closed)..I had worked from August till Thanksgiving with no days off...then from then till Christmas I had no days off...so I had Thanksgiving and Christmas..I came down with the flu and was able to get Pat or Dan, can't remember now who came down(think I was in a coma)...for 2 days...I left in Feb.So from August to Feb. I had 4 days off..they actually send some one in to close the store so I could go home...which I didn't have any more as I had given it up and was supposed to have time off to find me a place on the West Coast...I said fuck it, I'm going home to Texas.I also want to say that I did have some very good and hard workers...I had 4..out of 14 that I could trust and rely on, and they were very hard workers..
I was pretty sure I wasn't going to continue to work for them..It was just too fucking hard...I missed my kids..my grandkids..While I was gone my beloved best friend Bill died of cancer of the tongue..MJ came to the room and told me and I was just hysterical...can't explain the pain I felt..just knew he thought I had deserted him..wow, can't go there..
But I also was blessed with another beautiful grandaughter..H. was born on Dec.6th...a tiny little dark haired beauty..and I wasn't there for her birth..had been there for all of them..that killed me...so..was going home to Texas...but that was in '94..and we're still in 1993..where the Cowboys are going to the Super Bowl..Jimmy Johnson was right ...we kicked their asses..and boy was that a great feeling...the rest of the world was trudging along...President Clinton wussied out and made the "Don't Ask Don't Tell' comprise for the ban on homosexual's in the military.U.S. begins airlifting supplies to besieged Bosnia towns.The Feds stormed the Davidian Compound near Mr. Calm,Texas and six are killed..Five arrested 6th sought in bombing the World Trade Center in NY.Two police officers are convicted and sentenced in the Rodney King beating.Fire kills 72 as the cult stand off in Texas ends with federal assault. Twenty-two UN troops killed in Somalia. Ruth Bader Ginsburg was appointed to the Supreme Court. Iraq accepts UN weapon monitoring. Vincent W. Foster,Jr.,senior White House lawyer, commits suicide.Midwest flood damages expected to exceed $10billion.U.S. Agents blamed in the Waco, Texas siege...It was NOT AT WACO...It just read better in the paper..Whakko's from Waco...fuck..Canada elects a woman prime minister,Jean Chritien.House and Senate approves the North American Free Trade Agreement.Clinton signs Brady Bill regulating fire arms purchase....and we had some fairly good music..but rap and hip hop were really coming into it's own and I was not fucking happy about 'the noise'...I was becoming an old fart when it came to this new music...which was:'Nuttin' but a 'G'thang'by De.Dre,'Just Kickin'it'by Xcape,'What is love'by Haddaway,'Come Baby Come'by X7,'Hero and Dream Lover'by Miriah Carey,'In the still of the night'by Boys II Men,'Can't help falling in love'by UB40,'Have I told you lately'by Rod Stewart,'Supermodel'by RuPaul,'Cryin''by Aerosmith,'Shoop'by Salt N Pepa,'A Whole New World'by Peobo Byson and Regina Bell,'Hip Hop Horay'by Naughty by Nature,'All that she wants'by Ace of Base,'Bad Girl'by Madonna,'That's the way love goes'by Janet Jackson,'When I fall in love' by Celine Dion and Clive Griffin,'Please forgive me'by Bryan Adams,No ordinary love'by Sade,'I get around'by 2pac,'Whoot, there it is'by 95South and also put out by Tag Team,'Will you be there'by Michael Jackson,'I'll do anything for love(but I won't do that)'by Meatloaf(I love that song),'I'm gonna be(500 miles)'by the Proclaimers,'Knockin' da boots'by H-Town,'Passionate kisses'by Mary Chapin-Carpenter,'Bam!Shake the room'by Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince,'Baby i'm yours'by Shai,'Heart Shaped Box'by Nirvana and who could forget that great singer and his 'great'hit 'I Know I Got Skills'by Shaquille O'Neal? fuckity fuck fuck fuck..
Oh folks..it just keeps getting better..'Freak Me'by Silk,
'Human Behavior'by Bjork and 'Sex Me'by R Kelly.sigh*
'Again'by Janet Jackson,'Amazin'by Aerosmith,'No Rain'by Blind Mellon,'Rubberband Girl'by Kate Bush,'River of Dreams'by Billy Joel,'Kiss of Life'by Sade,'Everybody Hurts'by R.E.M.,'Candy everybody wants'by 10,000 Maniacs,'Into Your Arms'by Lemonheads,'Creep'by Radio Head,
'Ohh Child'by Dino,'I'll Sleep when I'm dead and Bed of Roses'by Bon Jovi,'Hey Jealousy'by Gin Blossoms,'Another Sad Love Song'by Toni Braxton,'Reason to belive'by Rod Stewart and Ronnie Woods,'Deeper and Deeper'by Madonna.'Living on the edge'by Aerosmith,'Keep ya' head up'by 2pac,'No Mistake'by Patty Symth,'Oh, the quiet'by Nirvana,'Pits'by Porno For Pyro,'Plush'by Stone Temple Pilots,'Rain'by Madonna,'Rooster'
by Alice In Chains,'Soul To Squeeze'by Red Hot Chili Peppers,
'U.N.I.T.Y.'by Queen Latifa,'Said I loved you but I lied'by Michael Bolton,'Sober'by Tool,Somebody to love'by George Michael and Queen. I will leave the music on a high note..I was driving back from Arizona on route to Texas and I had bought a few cassetts to play when I couldn't get the radio..So I am jamming,getting down, bobbing my head like a rabid parrot to Three Little Pigs by Green Jelly(weren't they Green Jello first?) and I am really rocking..I am on a 2 lane in the middle of bumfuck New Mecico and there isn't a car or truck for fucking miles.so who is to know I am acting 'the fool'..I happen to glance out of my window and next to me is a New Mexico State Trooper...staring at me like he is observing a crime in progress...He had on the regulated mirrored shades, but I am sure behind them were two bugged eyes popping out of his head.I just keep right on a bobbing...to caught up in the music to really care...after what seemed like an eternity..he slowly shook his head and sped off...I never missed a beat...
Normally I would ease into country music right about now..but you know what? it sucked...pop comes to country and it sucked...so fuckit...no country...But there were some great movies like Schlindler's List,The Fugitive,Sleepless in Seattle,Philadelphia,The Piano(stupid stupid movie..I have seen Harvey Keitel's dick more than I have my 2nd husbands),Wayne's World II and a movie that reminds me so much of my two sons when they were teens that I made the granddaughters watch the movie and tell me which one they thought was like their Daddy. They guessed right)Dazed and Confused...and a movie that made me feel like I was back at the Texan Theater in Mesquite,Texas getting the 'ahhhhh factor'...Jurassic Park....damn that was excellent..Bad year for us as we lost some greats:Audrey Hepburn,George'Sparky'McFarland,Vincent Price, River Phoenix and the great Frank Zappa...
So....all in all year 1993 was a very busy year..I had some wild times..met some great people..saw some beautiful county and made some great and not so great memories with my daughter...But really? 1993 was pretty fucking cool...THE COWBOYS ARE GOING TO THE SUPER BOWL.....